Stressful Family Contexts and Health in Divorced and Married Mothers

Abstract Using prospective data over 25 years from a sample of 416 women, the first objective of the current study was to investigate the biopsychosocial process over the second-half of the life course comparing mothers with diferent marital histories. The second objective was to investigate this biopsychosocial process for 296 maried mothers focusing on their marital quality over middle years. The results suggested that, compared to being married, divorcing in early-midlife launched an adverse biopsychosocial process for women leading to physical pain, physical limitations, and depressive symptoms over their mid-later years, largely through early-midlife financial stress, regardless of later recoupling. However, subsequent financial stress did not influence divorced mothers’ later-life health problems, suggesting their development of resilience. For consistently married mothers, both marital stress and financial stress uniquely influenced all three health problems throughout their mid-later years. For all mothers, these health problems progressed over mid-later years, as indicated through their stabilities and mutual influences, and these health problems also selected mothers into further escalating financial and marital stress over their mid-later years. Elucidating differential short- and long-term health influences of marital and financial stressors for divorced and married mothers provides a potentially useful information for targeted early preventive intervention efforts and policy formation. Such interventions can promote and develop resiliency factors, thereby aiding middle-aged mothers to prevent from adverse biopsychosocial processes.

grandmother-adult child relations. Further, we explored the extent to which these patterns differed by race. To address this question, we used mixed-methods data collected from 553 older mothers regarding their relationships with their 2,016 adult children; approximately 10% of the mothers had raised one or more of their grandchildren "as their own." Data were provided by the Within-Family Differences Study-I. Multilevel analyses showed that raising grandchildren was associated with greater closeness in grandmother-adult child relationship in Black families; however, in White families, raising grandchildren was associated with greater conflict in the grandmother-adult child relationship. Further, the differences by race in the effects of raising grandchildren on closeness and conflict were statistically significant. Qualitative analyses revealed that race differences in the association between raising grandchildren and relationship quality could be explained by mothers' reports of greater family solidarity in Black than White families. Our findings highlight the ways in which race and family solidarity interact to produce differences in the impact of raising grandchildren on Black and White mothers' assessment of the quality of their relationships with their adult children, consistent with broader patterns of racial differences in intergenerational cohesion.

DOES RELIGIOSITY IN THE TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD PREDICT FILIAL NORMS IN MIDLIFE?
Jeung Hyun Kim, 1 Woosang Hwang, 2 Maria Brown, 2 and Merril Silverstein, 2 , 1. Syracuse University, Syracuse,New York,United States,2. Syracuse University,Syracuse,New York,New York,United States Objective: This study aims to identify multiple dimensions of religiosity among young adults at the beginning and end of the transition to adulthood, and describe how transition patterns of religiosity in early adulthood are associated with filial elder-care norms in midlife.
Background: There is a broad consensus that religiosity is multidimensional in nature, but less is known regarding transitions in multiple dimensions of religiosity from early to middle adulthood and predicted filial eldercare norms as a function of those religiosity transitions.
Methods: The sample consisted of 368 young adults participating in the Longitudinal Study of Generations in 2000 (mean age = 23 years) and 2016 waves. We conducted a latent class and latent transition analyses to address our aims.
Results: We identified three religious latent classes among young adults in both 2000 and 2016 waves: strongly religious, weakly religious, and doctrinally religious. Staying strongly religious young adults between 2000 to 2016 waves reported higher filial elder-care norms in the 2016 Wave than those who were in staying weakly religious, staying doctrinally religious, and decreasing religiosity transition patterns between 2000 to 2016 waves.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that religiosity is still an important value for young adults shaping their intergenerational relationships with their aging parents.

STRESSFUL FAMILY CONTEXTS AND HEALTH IN DIVORCED AND MARRIED MOTHERS Kandauda Wickrama, 1 and Eric Klopack, 2 1. University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States, 2. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States
Using prospective data over 25 years from a sample of 416 women, the first objective of the current study was to investigate the biopsychosocial process over the secondhalf of the life course comparing mothers with diferent marital histories. The second objective was to investigate this biopsychosocial process for 296 maried mothers focusing on their marital quality over middle years. The results suggested that, compared to being married, divorcing in early-midlife launched an adverse biopsychosocial process for women leading to physical pain, physical limitations, and depressive symptoms over their mid-later years, largely through early-midlife financial stress, regardless of later recoupling. However, subsequent financial stress did not influence divorced mothers' later-life health problems, suggesting their development of resilience. For consistently married mothers, both marital stress and financial stress uniquely influenced all three health problems throughout their mid-later years. For all mothers, these health problems progressed over mid-later years, as indicated through their stabilities and mutual influences, and these health problems also selected mothers into further escalating financial and marital stress over their mid-later years. Elucidating differential short-and long-term health influences of marital and financial stressors for divorced and married mothers provides a potentially useful information for targeted early preventive intervention efforts and policy formation. Such interventions can promote and develop resiliency factors, thereby aiding middle-aged mothers to prevent from adverse biopsychosocial processes.

WHY DO PEOPLE DIVORCE LATE IN LIFE? SWEDISH GRAY DIVORCE NARRATIVES
Peter Öberg, 1 and Torbjorn Bildtgard, 2 , 1. University of Gävle,Gävle,Gavleborgs Lan,Sweden,2. Stockholms University,Stockholm,Stockholms Lan,Sweden Divorce rates for people 60+ has increased in many parts of the Western world in what has been described as a "grey divorce revolution". In Sweden these divorce rates have more than doubled since the millennium. But why do people choose to divorce late in life and what is the impact of life phase typical transitions? Qualitative interviews with 37 Swedish men and women (aged 62-81) divorced after the age of 60 were collected, covering themes regarding the divorce process: motives for and experiences of divorce, and life as grey divorcee. The results by thematic analysis show that motives for divorcing earlier in the life-course, such as abuse, unfaithfulness and addiction are prevalent also among older people. However, they tend to be framed differently in later life and be integrated into divorce narratives informed by age. We identified four life phase typical narratives for divorce: 1) Lack of a common project for the third age. 2) Partners personality change due to age related disease.
3) Increased freedom after empty-nest allowing emancipation from a dominant partner. 4) A final romantic adventure 394 Innovation in Aging, 2021, Vol. 5, No. S1 GSA 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting